Tip O'Day #428 - Bite Your Lip...

Guest blogger Mike Snyder on “A Cautionary Tale.”

Someone once said, "Writing is the loneliest profession." Let's not kid ourselves, so are accounting and nuclear physics. We just like to feel more tortured because we're creative. Well, maybe...

As authors, writers, bloggers, screenwriters, doodlers, dreamers, what-have-you, we are the masters of our fates ... much like that Seinfeld episode (and often, amounting to the same thing). For any of us know who have come up against editors, publishers, producers, directors, our moms -- name your poison -- it suddenly becomes a lot more crowded up in here!

I'm primarily a TV & film writer, but a lot of my friends are novelists (or recovering screenwriters, as I like to think of them). Some of them have had, or are in the process of having, their novels turned into films. One has even reverse engineered the process: she wrote a script that no one wanted, turned it into a best-selling novel featuring a winning heroine, which became a three-novel deal, which became a further three-novel deal, which then brought Hollywood sniffing around her door wondering if she'd "ever considered turning her novel into a script."

Ah, karma is so sweet sometimes...

I've been fortunate enough, and curious enough, to develop a skill set in other capacities on movie sets, which offers me a more unique insight into the screenwriting process, so I'm rarely asked to stay away when it's my script that's being eviscerated.

In other words, though it's often painful, and occasionally I still get bruised and battered, I know how to play the game. Novelists may have editors, but screenwriters are fair game to everyone who comes down the pike, so you may as well just relax and enjoy the ride. Filmmaking is the most collaborative of professions because everyone feels entitled to a kick at the cat, as my Canadian friends say. The producer who buys your script, certainly, especially if he's putting up the money and has a particular direction in mind for the project; the director, who wants to put his creative stamp on it; the actors, who want to make it their own (which is a whole 'nuther blog); and various network, studio or assistant underlings who need their presence known to justify huge paychecks.

All this requires that you bite the bullet. Hard. You're not going to win every argument and a lot of your darlings are going to be gutted, so choose your battles wisely and have *really* good reasons when you dig your heels in. Most writers are banned from TV or movie sets because they insist every last word is deathless prose. That's just not gonna happen, at least not in North America.

So, you've gone through development - a euphemism for obliterating anything creative from your script - and your Precious is going into production. Now you have every other department, down to the guy in crafts services, whispering in the director's ear because 1) they have an idea to make the script better, which is usually because 2) they have a script at home that's ten times as good as yours and they're obviously much more creative.

At this point you've suddenly begun praying the director has a strong vision, even if it's not *yours* simply to keep the wolves at bay.

Lonely profession indeed...

So, your bottom lip raw from biting it so much, you've managed to remain on the set as, day after day, you see something begin to emerge and take shape that may or may not have anything to do with your original piece.

Huzzah, consider yourself a true survivor. Out of hundreds of thousands (really, seriously, hundreds of thousands) of scripts that get submitted each year to studios, networks, production companies, producers, directors, actors, et al, yours was chosen. It was strong enough to withstand the vagaries of development and is being filmed. Or taped. Or pixeled. Whatever, it's getting made!

So whenever that little voice in the back of your head begins whining about your lovely vision and integrity to self and other silly, non-filmmaking words, sit on it. Hard. Stomp it down somewhere deep in the recesses of your soul where it will remain until you begin to write your next script.

Because ... this time it'll be different.

Saying for Writers #151 - Bradbury

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“I don’t need an alarm clock. My ideas wake me.” — Ray Bradbury

Drove from Kalispell, Montana, to Helena for soccer scheduling meetings last weekend, and saw about 100 deer alongside the road, plus a family of four elk. Was happy not to pick up any fur on my fenders.

How many deer do you see in the photo?

Tip O'Day #427 - Fictional (?) Characters

Guest blogger Carolyn Wall on “Characters – Real and Not.”

Constantly, I am set-upon by fictional characters. It was a pure wonder I didn’t go into acting. As a writer, however, I can create my own folks. In the case of my second novel, Playing With Matches, I began with Harry. I have four kids of my own, and five grandchildren plus three, so I knew how devastated his mom, Clea, was when Harry stopped talking. And how she and Thomas fell in love, once-and-forever, with little Maria-Luz. In the book, Luz looks like my own beautiful teenaged granddaughter.

Other than working through characters -- their love, sex and family problems -- my favorite part of the writing of Matches was the setting, especially a block of scenes that I had to omit from the final copy.

I love Belize City, which is just as Clea describes it in the book – the fish market in the canal, children playing in ditch water, the ocean lapping at the ends of the streets. For Sale by Red Carpet signs fronting shanties. Staircases that lead nowhere. Lush lawns of government buildings, the mayor’s brick house along the highway. City Park where the grass is dead and the trees stripped of leaves, weedy Mortuary Lane, parlors promising fast funerals because of the heat, women sitting alone in upstairs windows.

Speaking of setting -- my apologies to the people of Lousiana for snatching up their False River – actually a lake – and plunking it down in Mississippi.

Clea loved teaching the incarcerated to write, just as I did. For several years, I exhausted some friends and worried others as I prattled on and on about how incredibly much offenders had to say.

Which brings me back to characters.

I was attending a conference recently when the speaker asked a roomful of writers to jot down a childhood memory. I remembered my mother calling me in from outside – I was eleven or twelve – to teach me about the birds and the bees. She told me young ladies carried a handkerchief at all times and said – “Here, read this book.” In Matches, as I wrote the character of Bitsy, my heart ached for her lack of knowing, so I gave her the soft pink memory of Felicia to hold onto.

Carolyn’s latest book, Playing With Matches (Random House, 2012) and her first novel, Sweeping Up Glass (Random House, 2009) are available in bookstores everywhere. You can learn more about her on Facebook or at www.Carolyndwall.com.

Saying for Writers #150 - George Singleton

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“You do not have to explain every single drop of water contained in a rain barrel. You have to explain one drop — H2O. The reader will get it.” — George Singleton

Dixon says: Novelist and screenwriter Dennis Foley used to teach writing at UCLA, and now shares his wisdom with the Authors of the Flathead in northwest Montana. One of his most frequently repeated acronyms is RUE – resist the urge to explain.

Gone are the days when, in the first chapter of a novel, a woman would enter a room, only to have the author completely stop the action while he spends half a page describing the carpet, drapes, furniture and wallpaper. It is helpful for the author if he can visualize all that information. However, all the reader needs is a few telling details in order to understand the essence of the setting. If I mention an ornate Chinese rug, doilies on wing chairs, and yellowed lithographs of dead relatives on a mantle, you might think, “That’s just like my elderly aunt’s parlor.” If I give you another half-page of description, it all becomes a jumble of confusing details.

So resist the urge to explain.

Tip O'Day #426 - A Memorist's Voice

Guest blogger Cindy Zelman on “10 Million Links to Help Make Your Memoir Stand Out! (Part 2)”

Or, more simple advice for those new to memoir writing. (Scroll down to the previous blog post if you missed Part 1.)

Suggestion Number 3: Find your voice. You may know that the memoir market is glutted with terrifying and sad stories of sexual abuse, physical abuse, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Does that mean your own story on such topics won’t get the attention of an editor? Well, that may depend on voice. Voice in writing is what sets you apart. It’s a bit of an elusive term.

I will use an analogy to popular music. When you hear a Beatles’ song, you know it’s the Beatles. When you hear an Adele song, you know it’s Adele. Not because of how their voices literally sound, but because their entire presentation is in a unique voice. Four Beatles were vocalists and yet you always knew it was the Beatles playing on the radio, regardless of who sang lead. When you read something by one of your favorite authors, you know it’s that author without even looking at the book jacket. Why? Because of voice, the sound that the writer generates, a tone and an attitude embedded in the writing, that makes his or her writing unique, a DNA stamp of sorts.

One way to develop voice is to write naturally and to write often. Practice. Don’t try to force flowery language or humor or pathos. Write the first draft of your memoir as if you were telling the story to a friend sitting next to you. So, keep on writing and practicing until your voice emerges and your story of drug abuse doesn’t sound like anyone else’s.

Suggestion Number 4: Revise…and revise some more. Did you hear that? REVISE! Then REVISE again! Show your manuscript to friends, enemies, writing workshop participants, teachers, and then REVISE again! (Don’t overuse exclamation points in your writing!) Put the draft away for awhile, reread it, and revise yet again.

Those are my four simple steps to writing a good memoir. Easy right? Absolutely. Not. Writing a memoir is akin to writing a novel and it takes time, but if your story is worth telling, take the time. Don’t worry about the market. There are periods when genres are “hot” as memoirs have been in the past decade, and then they cool off – as they may have at the moment. But I firmly believe if you write a great manuscript, put the time and effort into it -- and that can take years -- eventually, it will find a home, no matter the genre.

I leave you here, with what should be suggestion number 5: read some great memoirs. Here are a few to start with:

Lucky by Alice Sebold
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
The Chelsea Whistle by Michelle Tea
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars
Townie: A Memoir by Andre Dubus III

So, go to it, writer friends, get down to your writing. And remember there are 3 – 10 million links out there to help you make your memoir stand out, so if this post has not been helpful, Google it and good luck.

Cindy Zelman is a creative nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in numerous journals including Feminist Studies, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, The Whistling Fire, and Cobalt Review. She is finishing a full-length memoir about how panic disorder and a dysfunctional childhood have affected her romantic relationships. You can read some of her work on her blog, The Early Draft.

Tip O'Day #425 - Finding Emotional Truth

Guest blogger Cindy Zelman on “10 Million Links to Help Make Your Memoir Stand Out! (Part 1)”

Or, some simple advice for those new to memoir writing.

If you Google the phrase, How to make your memoir stand out, you will receive 3+ million hits within a few seconds. Sometimes that phrase yields up to 10 million hits. Either way, that’s a lot of information. Who am I to give you advice with such a crowd of experts waiting for you to click on a link or 3 million? As a blogger and a writer whose focus is creative nonfiction, both essays and memoir, I can offer you some down home suggestions -- nothing proven or promised, but helpful ideas I’ve picked up along the way from other writers, editors, and publishers.

I would begin by telling you not to listen to people who say you must lead an exciting life to write a publishable memoir. BS, people, BS! Yeah, sure, it helps to be Cheryl Strayed and have hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert to Washington State all alone. To add to the spice of her memoir, Strayed had never been a hiker and decided to hike 1,000+ miles to find inner peace after the death of her mother and a divorce from her spouse. This doesn’t sound like your life? You don’t find yourself praying you don’t run out of water lost up in a mountain somewhere? You’re not a beautiful blonde adventurer who would look good on Oprah?

Me neither.

Just because your life is a little quieter than Chery Strayed’s, that doesn’t mean you can’t write a great memoir. Even if the most exciting thing you do is stay home and crochet afghans, you can write a compelling memoir. It’s all in how you tell the story.

Did I just say “story?”

Suggestion Number 1: Tell a story. Just as a novelist tells a story in fiction, a memoirist should always keep story in mind when telling her tale. Of course, one distinction between fiction and memoir is that your story needs to be true. By true, I don’t mean absolutely, 100% factual, because a memoir is not a news article. I’m not interested in all the arguments about objective truth, since personally, I do not believe it exists.

If you are to write credible memoir, stay as close to memory as possible. Finding the emotional truth in your story is essential. The emotional truth is what readers want in memoir – not the chronological facts of your life. A this happened and then that happened approach is autobiography, not memoir. You reach deeper in memoir to provide a story arc, to feel and see and interpret the aspect(s) of your life and the world which you are writing about.

For example, you might not remember the color of your father’s sweater when he took you to the ball game, right before he left you and your mom forever, but you remember how it felt when he took you to that game. What would the color of the sweater need be, to evoke the emotional truth of being with your Dad for the last time? Make his sweater that color, the color of how it felt. It’s okay to imagine, just don’t lie about having had a father who took you to the ball game and then left home, leaving you and your mom to fend for yourselves. That part needs to be true. The part about the sweater color can be imagined as a method for showing the emotional truth. If it makes you uncomfortable to make up the color, you can alert your readers that you are imagining. “I think his sweater was blue,” or “I imagine his sweater to be blue,” are ways to tip off the reader that you are unsure. Readers are okay with that.

If research and interviews help to jog your memory and go deeper into the story, then go for it. I recently had an experience where someone I never wanted to hear from again found a short memoir published by an online journal. She contacted me and pushed back about some of the situations I described. I must give her credit that our discussions led to a better and deeper story. People who are familiar with the story you want to tell can help to jog your memory, but remember, it’s your story to write, not theirs.

So, tell us a story.

Suggestion Number 2: Write well. It may sound self-evident but there are people who think if they throw something down on paper about their lives, it’s worthy of readers. If you plan to write about how knitting afghans for the last 30 years has made you the spiritual person you are today, starting when you were a 15-year old feeling alone and friendless and borderline suicidal, and ending your story in middle-age, where the afghans are what saved your mortal soul and now define your very essence –- write that story well. It’s an awesome story: surviving your demons through crocheting is your own Pacific Crest Trail hike. However, your sentence structure, diction, and grammar need to be clear, concise, and correct. Make sure there are no spelling errors. (I am saying all this to myself, by the way.)

Cindy Zelman is a creative nonfiction writer whose work has appeared in numerous journals including Feminist Studies, Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, The Whistling Fire, and Cobalt Review. She is finishing a full-length memoir about how panic disorder and a dysfunctional childhood have affected her romantic relationships. You can read some of her work on her blog, The Early Draft, found here.

Part 2 of Cindy’s advice on memoir writing will appear here tomorrow, February 28th.

Saying for Writers #149 - Weingarten

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“All stories have to at least try to explain some small portion of the meaning of life. You can do that in 20 minutes, and 15 inches. I still remember a piece that the great Barry Bearak did in The Miami Herald some 30 years ago. It was a nothing story, really: Some high school kid was leading a campaign to ban books he found offensive from the school library. Bearak didn’t even have an interview with the kid, who was ducking him. The story was short, mostly about the issue. But Bearak had a fact that he withheld until the kicker. The fact put the whole story, subtly, in complete perspective. The kicker noted the true, wonderful fact that the kid was not in school that day because ‘his ulcer was acting up.’ Meaning of life, 15 inches.” – Gene Weingarten

A view of the Northern Rockies from my home in Kalispell, Montana.

Tip O'Day #424 - How to Start?

Guest blogger Jessica Knauss on “Creating an Exciting Beginning.”

I write in two genres. For short pieces and my contemporary longer fiction, I can honestly say that the first few lines drop into my head. It’s as if my muse says, Here you go. What happens next? It’s the most exciting part of writing and gets me enthused for the entire story, so I hope that enthusiasm is transmitted to the reader.

I was sitting at a table at my grandmother’s house, absently rubbing the bony part of my nose, when the first line of Rhinoceros Dreams appeared out of nowhere: “Allie had an outsized bump on the bridge of her nose that made her think she might be turning into a rhinoceros.” Although the story went through several drafts, the first line was a keeper from that moment.

On the other hand, the first line of Unpredictable Factors in Human Obedience involved the main character ordering vegetarian substitute bacon for the charity dinner that figures in the climax. Once the first draft was finished, I realized I no longer needed the part about the fake bacon. I cut it so the story starts with a hint at the main character’s self-absorption, but I’ll never forget that the story would not have come into being if not for that lost sentence.

My current WIP, a New Adult paranormal tentatively titled Middle Awash in Talent, begins this way:

When my little sister staggered through that rough-hewn doorway, blood still dripping artistically from the slash across her bellybutton where they’d sewn her up, and declared that she no longer needed my attention, she finally started to seem interesting to me.

Beth and I started off on the wrong foot.

That crazy image, written during that time between sleep and waking, eventually led to a vivid narrator, a world where some people train to use their telekinesis or other strange powers, and unexpected twists and turns at a breakneck pace all over the northern hemisphere. When I finish it as a novella or novel, I may change a few words of the beginning, but overall it has served the story exceptionally well.

My muse hasn’t been so generous with my historical novel. Although I’ve finished the first draft of The Seven Noble Knights of Lara, the really inspired passages take place well within the book. In fact, I put so much pressure on myself to write an awesome beginning that I started with Chapter II. I’ve now gone back and forth with the beginning four or five times. Can it start slowly? Should the beginning with a bang be an entire chapter, or just a prologue-type fragment? How much of the bad guy should I show up front? What will draw the reader in? Once the novel gets going, all my beta readers have reported feeling like they’ve been transported to the year and place and can hardly put it down, but I’m far from figuring out what would make a new reader turn the first page.

I hope my editor can help with this decision. There’s still a chance the right beginning will drop into my head when I’m least expecting it, but that doesn’t seem like a very reliable method, if it’s a method at all. I’ve written The Seven Noble Knights of Lara much differently than anything else – it was well planned, while my contemporary stories are purely pantsed. So when I do figure out this beginning, I hope it’s a technique I can use for all the other historical fiction I’m planning. Wish me luck! Any suggestions are welcome.

Jessica was the first person to interview Dixon as a writer. She blogs at this link and provides updates about The Seven Noble Knights of Lara here.

For those unfamiliar with the word pantsed, this refers to the spectrum of writers, with planners at one end, and those who write by the seat of their pants at the other end. Thus, some authors refer to themselves as pantsers, and their prose could be said to be pantsed. Class dismissed.

Saying for Writers #148 - Jean Kerr

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

"Confronted by an absolutely infuriating review it is sometimes helpful for the victim to do a little personal research on the critic. Is there any truth to the rumor that he had no formal education beyond the age of eleven? In any event, is he able to construct a simple English sentence? Do his participles dangle? When moved to lyricism does he write 'I had a fun time'? Was he ever arrested for burglary? I don't know that you will prove anything this way, but it is perfectly harmless and quite soothing." – Jean Kerr

A soothing photo of snow on branches snapped somewhere in northwest Montana by local friend Sue Haugan. Hang this where it can be seen from your bathtub. After receiving a horrible review, pour yourself a glass of wine and climb in the tub for a long, hot soak.

Tip O'Day #423 - Flashing Back

Guest blogger Ben Drake flashes back to earlier today, when he had a question about flashbacks.

Does every flashback need a catapult?

I am a lover of the flashback. I recently read a very good story with several flashbacks in it, and I just wrote a story with some attempts at flashbacks on my book site. They are not as easy as one would think. An editor I know has told me about one rule for flashbacks – there needs to be a trigger for them.

But what about when the character is insane? In my own mind I don’t need a flashback catapult when I am transported back into the actual, strong memory. Then again, it has been said that I do not have the soundest of minds.

Dixon says: Thanks, Ben. In my opinion, there’s only one rule for a flashback (or a flashforward) – you need to be absolutely clear when you’re going into and coming out of the flashback.

Flashbacks can be any length at all. They can be one phrase long – The smoke from the fire made Paul break out in a sweat, taking him back to the burning crack house in Phoenix when he accidentally shot an innocent kid. They can be a hundred pages of longer. In the novel The Godfather, there’s a huge flashback right after Sonny’s wedding, going back to Don Corleone’s youth in Sicily. I’ve seen books where the opening and closing chapters are bookends, in the present tense, and the rest of the story is a flashback. An example of that is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

The Liberty Valance short story by Dorothy Johnson (as well as the movie) is also an example of a flashback within a flashback, when Sen. Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) reveals that Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) actually shot bad guy Liberty Valance. To get even more complicated, there are cases of a flashback within a flashback within a flashback, such as Six Degrees of Separation.

It’s easy when the flashback starts and ends at chapter breaks. Thirty years earlier makes a nice transition. The same thing goes for a scene break. When the flashback occurs in the middle of a scene, the author needs to go out of her way to ensure clarity without jerkiness, both going in and coming out. My suggestion is to do your best and then show it to some critique partners (beta readers) to see if what’s in your mind works on the page.

As for Ben’s question about an unbalanced character, if that person has already been established as unreliable, there’s no reason a flashback shouldn’t work. In my WIP, a thriller tentatively titled Montana is Burning, there’s a schizophrenic character named Winnifred who holds lengthy discussions with her dead mother, her son (who may or may not have been aborted), the devil, and various imps. If Winnifred tells you today is Saturday, you’d still better check a calendar. Her flashbacks are some of the most entertaining parts of the novel, even though the reader isn’t sure whether they actually occurred.

Ben’s guest post was a fine example of brevity. Unfortunately, I rarely demonstrate that talent.

Saying for Writers #147 - Hemingway

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

"The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal." – Ernest Hemingway

Dixon says: I enjoy collecting quirky quotes, and have unearthed quite a few from both Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. The following and many other writing tips were gathered by Larry W. Phillips into his 1984 book, Ernest Hemingway on Writing. The Open Culture website created their list of seven favorites for a post on February 19th at http://tinyurl.com/bxj3ljz as follows:

1. To get started, write one true sentence.

2. Always stop for the day while you still know what will happen next.

3. Never think about the story when you’re not working.

4. When it’s time to work again, always start by reading what you’ve written so far.

5. Don’t describe an emotion -- make it.

6. Use a pencil.

7. Be brief.

I’ve heard that Hemingway would start each day’s writing session with a few freshly sharpened pencils. When they were worn down to nubs, it was time to stop writing and head for the nearest watering hole. Don’t know is that is true, but it’s part of the Hemingway legend.

It could be true.

Tip O'Day #422 - "I'm No Cop"

Guest blogger Mark Sadler on writing from first person point of view.

I had always baulked at writing in the first person because it just seemed, well, so personal. Surely one would have to be experienced in whatever the subject matter was to pull it off. I write suspense and police procedurals and really have a vivid imagination rather than experience so it would probably come off weak. That’s what I told myself, anyway. As I started to write my current project, I actually started in the first person and then switched as it felt false and weird. However the more I wrote, I realized that telling the story as a cop from the first person standpoint brought more of a charge to what I felt as I wrote.

I was totally unprepared for what was to come. As writers we all know that our characters take us where they want to go, which is not necessarily the direction we thought they should. As my protagonist drifted through the present and into his past, the emotions that were brought up as he took me where he had been as a child brought tears to my eyes. As I witnessed my mother being strangled to death, as it were, I was able to understand his path through the current stages of the novel.

Now I have never been a cop, and never experienced the horrible nightmares this poor child experienced. I never knew the consequences on an abused child later in life, nowhere close. Does that make me less of an expert, less able to issue commentary on the subject? Of course not. No one ever asked Stephen King what he knew about living under a dome or time-travel. We writers are all readers of other authors’ works, and of real-life news events. We all use these for inspiration, woven together with our own thoughts and experiences. If your book lacks emotional attachment, try putting yourself in the shoes of your protagonist and watch the flavors pop!

Mark’s thriller, Blood On His Hands, is available in paperback and Kindle here and you can learn more about him at his website www.markpsadler.com

Tip O'Day #421 - Whose Dream?

Guest blogger Gary Ponzo writes on “Chasing the Dream 101.”

Recently I became acquainted with an ambitious writer who's chasing the dream to become a published author. He'd read one of my books and asked if I would meet him for drinks to discuss my travels along this path. When we got together one of the first questions he asked was, "So how do I go about getting published?" To which I responded, "Is your book finished?" Well, you seem like a very smart audience so I'm sure you've already guessed that he hadn't even started writing a book yet.

You see, asking about the publishing process before you've finished polishing off your book is like a golfer asking what they should wear to the champions dinner before even entering into an event. Or learning the sport.

We ended up having a terrific evening of drinks and appetizers. Hours later I agreed to exchange chapters with him so we could critique each other's work along the way. I'm always searching for new eyes for my writing and he was excited about the idea of working together.

Now fast forward a month. This writer sends me the first 40 pages of his book to review and we agree to meet once again for drinks to discuss his writing. He was an English major and had probably one of the strongest command of narrative I've ever seen. There was no doubt he could write. His story began with a young woman trapped in a torrential rain storm up in the mountains where a strange man finds her unconscious and keeps her safe and sheltered through the night. I was fascinated to find out where the story was going, only to discover the woman fantasizing about having sex with her rescuer the moment she awakes. By fantasizing, I mean a body-thrusting, orifice-penetrating, erection-filled sexual fantasy that would make Hugh Hefner blush. Two scenes later, she's reminiscing about the first night she'd slept with her husband and explained parts of her anatomy her gynecologist hadn't thought of checking.

Although these sexual interludes were sandwiched between some very intriguing story lines, I was curious if the writer knew exactly what type of story he was writing. Surely he understood that this was an erotic novel, right? Wrong. He told me that the sex scenes stop after the second chapter, but that his wife told him to throw some steamy action into his book because, well, sex sells. He doesn't even like writing that stuff, he was just trying to tap into the E.L James fan base.

Everything I've just told you is true. And I'll bet this isn't the only instance of a writer chasing after a dream which turns out to be someone else's. Getting anything published these days is hard. Just try selling a short story to a literary magazine with a circulation of 300. It's damn tough.

I am certainly no expert on which path to take on the way to success (whatever that may mean to you). Please, if you really want to chase the dream to become an author, and maybe even develop some loyal readers along the way--chase your own dream. You will have very few regrets along the way.

A Touch of Greed, Gary’s latest thriller in the Nick Bracco series can be found on Kindle here. The next Nick Bracco novel will be released in a few weeks.

Tip O'Day #420 - Don't Wimp Out

Guest blogger Jeff Mariotte on keeping in shape.

You write with your writing muscles.

Like any other muscles, you've got to use them, exercise them, keep them in shape. If you let them atrophy, they won't be there when you need them. If you take care of them and work them out regularly, they will.

So write.

A lot.

It doesn't necessarily make writing any easier, but it almost invariably makes your hard work turn into something better.

Jeff Mariotte has written over 45 novels and numerous comic books, mostly in the supernatural thriller, horror, western and suspense thriller genres, as well as nonfiction works about serial killers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the like. You can find the paperback of supernatural thriller Season of the Wolf here.

Saying for Writers #146 - W. Zinsser

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“I almost always urge people to write in the first person… Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.” — William Zinsser.

Dixon says: I think it depends on the story. Moby Dick would have been a completely different tale if told in first person by Captain Ahab. Having the uneducated deckhand Ishmael as an unreliable narrator created a unique dynamic. Generally, though, writing in the first person – especially first person present tense – lends an air of immediacy to a story.

First person does create complications. Events taking place elsewhere must be reported to the protagonist in a realistic manner. There’s also the danger that the POV character will end up “living in the head” too much. I felt that was the case in the Hunger Games trilogy. The movie version of the first book avoided all the internal monologue, choosing instead the more traditional cinema approach of what you see is what you get. To me, the result was a more thrilling adventure, while still keeping most of the essential story elements.

Tip O'Day #419 - Baking a Book Brownie

Guest blogger Mary Fan on reading to escape.

I frequent the New York Times book section, mostly looking for industry news, and to pick up tips on how to write a good review. (I run a review blog, Zigzag Timeline). However, I don’t think I’ve ever picked up one of the books reviewed. Partially it’s because I have an extensive reading list and don’t really have time for their recommendations, but mostly because they like to review literary fiction, in which case, the reader in my head says, “No thanks, sounds too good.”

I don’t read to delve into the depths of real life drama, to examine or question moral principles, or to ruminate on the meaning of life. I read to escape. That’s why the majority of my reading list consists of speculative fiction. I want a book to take me away to a far-off land, where the impossible comes to life and the improbable is shrugged at. Who cares that there’s no possible way a light saber could work? If they’re part of the fabric of the story, they’re real enough for me.

I see enough real world problems just reading the news. When I read, I don’t want a mirror of what’s actually going on out there. I don’t want someone to “tell it like it is.” In fact, unless it’s dramatized historical fiction, I avoid stories “based on a true story” like my cat avoids a bath. Most of the stuff I read is, from a literary standpoint, transient. It will never be taught in classrooms, picked apart by teachers with microscopes and crammed down the throats of yawning school children. It will never be tied to an academic’s desk and tortured into confessing its underlying meanings. That’s precisely why I read it. It’s my literary candy, empty word calories that taste delicious.

Now, every so often, I’ll come across a piece of candy that has nutritional value, and those are the best. They’re like those gummy bear vitamins — you receive your nutrients in a tasty package. You get your far-off adventures, your wild escapes, your truer-than-life loves, and you get to feel a little smarter after reading.

When I wrote my sci-fi space adventure, Artificial Absolutes, I was basically baking brownies. A star-filled batter mixed with robots and sprinkled with virtual reality. It was, for me, a fun thought experiment: what would happen if you took an ordinary young woman, who could have stepped out of a contemporary romance or something, and put her in a space opera universe akin to Star Wars?

Then I began thinking a lot — perhaps too much — about the theme of man versus machine, the eggs that hold the batter together. I approached the great nutritious carrot that is the philosophical debate about the nature of free will, and I shaved off a few pieces to throw into my sci-fi brownie. Whether the nutrients survived the oven remains to be seen, and will likely be received differently by different readers.

Ultimately, whether they get their veggie bits or not, I hope to do for my readers what dozens of authors have done for me – take them away on a fun journey.

Mary Fan’s sci-fi novel Artificial Absolutes will be released in late February and the book’s website is http://www.artificialabsolutes.com

Saying for Writers #145 - Hemingway

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” — Ernest Hemingway

Another Montana photo by my Kalispell friend Sue Haugan - a snowy day in November.

Saying for Writers #144 - F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

"Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke." – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Kalispell friend Sue Haugan took this photo of a frozen waterfall earlier in January, somewhere in NW Montana.

Tip O'Day #418 - Just Look in Her Eyes

Guest blogger Anjali Enjeti opines on the subject, “Ask Me About My Writing."

But first, a note about what Dixon has been up to. I had shoulder surgery two months ago (my rotator cuff wouldn't rotate) and the creativity elves stopped visiting me for awhile. Either I was in too much pain, or I was fuzzy-headed from the pain meds. No more drugs now, and I'm doing well in physical therapy. It's nice to be back. Did you miss me? - Dixon.

I’ve been writing for eleven years now. While I’ve had some success, it’s safe to say that 99% of what I’ve written hasn’t gotten published. Okay, maybe 99% is a little high. Let’s settle on 95%.

My fifth book and first novel will be going on submission with my agent in the near future. (My first book was a memoir, the second an anthology, the third and fourth were picture books.) Going on submission is a scary process, made only scarier by the fact that one of my books, which I would have bet my life on would sell -- didn’t sell.

It’s a lot of hard work — not getting published. When you’re buried in rejection letters, there’s the added stress of wondering whether you’ll ever succeed -- whether your blood, sweat and tears will ever amount to anything.

I know many published writers whose books take up an entire shelf at the local bookstore. At book signings and speaking engagements, they complain about upcoming deadlines from their editors, their worldly travels to promote their published books, their rapidly declining advances. They bemoan their lack of sleep, interrupted and shortened because of their busy writing careers.

Successfully published writers seem to forget that we unpublished writers are also exhausted and overworked with our writing. No, we don’t have the advance or marked-up editorial letter to show for it. Hell, we still can’t find an agent, but we also make enormous sacrifices in order to write. Because we unpublished writers are working just as hard to get published as published writers.

We, too, struggle with self-esteem, depression and anxiety. We also have to wait until the kids are asleep before we can get a significant amount of writing done. We come home cranky and spent (from our other jobs, which actually pay the bills), and somehow muster whatever creativity reserves we have left to write engaging prose and scintillating poetry.

Recently, I went out to lunch with a wildly successful, best-selling author. Over grilled cheese and lemonade, she peppered me with questions about my own writing, my agent search, and my publishing history. She nodded when I confessed that I didn’t know whether it was worth it anymore — this writing life.

Here she was, living the dream: a big-time author, traveling the country to speak to reading and writing groups, researching her next novel in Europe, and selling foreign rights to countries I’ve never even heard of — and she couldn’t have acted more interested in my own, humble, and fledgling publishing career.

I left the lunch feeling validated. Reborn, almost, for she had taken the time to listen not only to my (numerous) tales of woe, but also to reveal her own, very discouraging start in publishing. By doing so, she pulled me from the pit of rejection-despair, and restored the fire in my belly for writing and submitting that had nearly gone out.

So if you are a published author and you find me standing in line, waiting for you to sign my copy of your book, do me a favor: Remember what it was like to be on this side of the process. Take a moment to look me in my discouraged, weary eyes. And ask me about my writing.

Anjali recently completed her first novel, Secrets of the Sari Chest, and is working on her second novel, Finding Om. She is represented by Robert Guinsler of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc., and blogs at anjalienjeti.com

Tip O'Day #417 - How One Reader Spots Winners

Guest blogger Trisha Russon on choosing what to read.

I'm passionate about the things that interest me. I'm addicted to reading. One of the most beneficial outcomes of reading is relaxation. For me, this is important therapy. To some people, myself included at times, reading offers an escape from the real world.

I'm an avid reader, always searching for new authors to fuel my addiction. I enjoy reading different genres depending on my mood. When I choose a book by an unknown author, there is a combination of specific things that draw me to the book. First and foremost are a striking cover, an impressive title and an intriguing description.

If a book lacks these qualities it gives me the impression that the unknown author is an unprofessional beginner who doesn't know how to write. In my honest opinion, that's a sure way to quickly lose a reader’s interest. I know there are people out there who believe in the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover." Sorry, but I have to disagree. I want to be captivated and drawn into the book like a child entering a candy store for the very first time.

I like to use a variety of different sites to help me when choosing a book. Web pages like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, authors and readers blogs, and even Facebook pages and groups with descriptive blurbs, synopses, anthologies and great reviews are all helpful tools.

With that being said, I still don't base my final decision about a book solely by what others have to say about it, for one reason. We all have different opinions about the books we read. What other people like or don't like will not sway me either way. At the end of the day it comes down to one thing.

Did the authors have what it took to draw me into buying their books?

Dixon says: These are all good points, and yet we’ve all had the experience of buying what appears to be a professionally-produced, thought-provoking book, only to quickly realize it’s poorly written garbage. However, there’s a way to prevent that.

Let’s say you’ve been intrigued by the catchy title, striking cover and interesting blurb. You’ve seen it mentioned on some websites you follow. You’ve read a few positive reviews, and noticed it has a high rating on Goodreads. My suggestion is that you now read some sample pages.

Sure, we all know the first chapter get edited and proofread a lot more than later sections, and yet believe me, any writer too lazy or clueless to run a book past Beta Readers or a critique group, will demonstrate those same qualities in the first five pages. One of the things I really enjoy about eBooks is the ability to preview a certain amount of the opening pages, usually about ten percent, just as you might do browsing in a physical bookstore. I recently previewed a book where I didn’t need to go past the second page to find about a half-dozen misspellings and misuses of there, their and they’re. So be a smart consumer, and do the work needed to avoid buying junk.

Tip O'Day #416 - Hello, Lurkers!

Guest blogger Lucy Pireel rants about online forums for authors.

When Dixon asked me whether I would like to supply him with a guest post for his blog, I jumped at the opportunity — like I always do. Head first and oblivious to the existence of shallow, shark infested waters. But that’s me.

Anyway, I had a nice topic to ramble on about — where to get new ideas — but got distracted. By? Yup, the evil Book of Faces. It has me in its clutches and won’t let go. Mind you, I’ve liked being on there ever since I signed up rather reluctantly. It’s a major distraction, but also a source of great fun and a wonderful means of reaching out to people. We get to ‘meet’ individuals we would have never known without Facebook.

I thought it would be useless to me, but to be honest I’ve learned quite a bit about self-publishing and marketing during the mere month since being suckered in. Hahaha. But there’s a balance to be kept, because before you know it — Poof! — there went another day that could, no should, have been spent on writing, editing, or other writerly habits.

So, there you have the topic of today. Facebook. Let’s take a long hard look at it. Fun? Yes! Useful? Yes, and… Oh, well, yes. Even if I sometimes think the authors gathered there are mainly promoting our works to one another, I still honestly believe that there must be other people watching and reading too. People who lurk in the shadows and think, because they do not write, they have no right being part of an authors group.

How wrong they are. There are heaps of readers too. Readers who love to connect with writers. Take for example the Book Junkies group, a gang of readers who not only love books, but are also dedicated to helping writers get their names and works more exposure throughout the online universe. Book Junkies members think ‘outside the box’ and have set up not only their group, but also a site to promote authors, and a site to promote books by posting reviews. They offer a complete platform for writers.

And there are many other similar groups.

Not only are there promotional groups, but recently a new group called Authors Against Piracy has been formed. Now we not only unite in the search for an audience, but we’ve started the effort to protect our intellectual property against thieves. Much like the music industry struggles to protect itself, we ought to do the same. Digital books need the same kind of protection that recorded music has. And I don’t mean that lousy excuse they call DRM, because any second grade digital thief can take that off any file in a jiffy, ruining a beautifully formatted book while at it. Leaving the ripped off copy a mucked up mess.

So Facebook and other online forums offer an opportunity for authors to network and create friendships all over the globe. We get to learn more about the craft of writing, about the publishing business, and about our legal rights. We have the chance to discover what readers are looking for, and how they choose which books to purchase. For those of us in rural or isolated locales, we have the opportunity to create a writing platform.

And the lurkers get plenty of places to hang out.

Tip O'Day #415 - The Best POV

Guest blogger Carolyn Arnold says “First Person POV Can Save Your Writing.”

All of us -- both as authors and as readers -- want characters we can relate to and connect with. Nothing can kill a plot much faster than cardboard shadows roaming the pages. I’m sure we’ve all been victim to this plague at one point or another, whether the infection has been injected by us as the author, or we’ve tried to read a book that has them.

The question as an author is, how can we avoid flat characters and get ones our readers feel they can pinch?

When we start out writing, we all have areas we can improve on. In fact, even once we may have “mastered” one technique or area, we’ll find there are still ways to sharpen it further. That’s why I always say that writing isn’t a destination but a journey -- a metaphor that holds true in so many ways.

So if we are to improve our craft, the old adage, practice makes perfect, is always in play. When I started out writing, I didn’t even know where it was headed. My goal was simply to write a full-length novel. I didn’t see beyond that until a few months after I finished the first draft. And it wasn’t until I wrote Ties that Bind, the first Madison Knight novel, that I realized how serious writing was to me. Going from a single goal to a lifestyle, I was reborn an author. It’s quite likely my situation mirrors your own. You may also relate to the fact that once you decide you want to make money with your books and have people “out there” read them, you have to refine them to the point of exhaustion, and beyond.

Along my journey, I discovered I needed to sharpen my characterization. I went back to Ties that Bind repeatedly revising and tightening until Madison Knight came alive off the page. It was at this point I proudly published the novel satisfied she was relatable and like a real woman I could run into on the street.

This didn’t happen overnight. As mentioned, it took many return visits to the manuscript and time. Maybe you’re wondering how I knew what I was looking for? Here’s how: writing first person POV saved my writing.

Possibly you’re cocking an eyebrow right now, or smirking at the statement, but it’s true. Think of it this way: the most popular point of view to write in is third close. That is the use of “he” and “she”, where as the author you’ve distanced yourself immediately by pulling out of the character’s head. You may argue that third close gives you “insider knowledge,” and it does if executed properly. That latter part is the key. So, how do you get there?

Think of writing first person. The use of “I,” “me,” “we” and “us” become the terms used in this point of view. It instantly feels more personal. By using “I” and looking at emotions and situations in first person, you are right inside that character’s mind. You feel what they feel, see what they see, hear what they hear, and smell what they smell.

In consideration of this, my suggestion to all authors is: write something in first person.,/p>

For myself, this came in the form of a full-length novel (Restitution, not yet published). But you don’t have to write a novel. Why not just try a short story, or if you’re struggling with a scene, re-work it (for your purpose) in first person?

Close your eyes. Immerse yourself in the scene. Breathe in deep and focus. You are your character. How do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear? You get the idea.

By writing in first person, it benefits your writing in at least two ways:

1. It strengthens your intimacy with your characters, and in turn, your readers -- even when writing in third close. In fact, I find when I’m writing close third in a first draft, I have inadvertently put “I” because I felt that close with the character.

2. It takes away any hesitation to branch out and try something new. This is very important, because as author as we must continually challenge ourselves.

For myself, after I wrote Restitution, that was then I revisited Ties that Bind. In fact, at the time of this post, I have written three novels utilizing this point of view with a fourth in the works. Here’s another challenge for you: switch off between first and third to play with the plot of the story and further heighten conflicts and create more suspense.

Of course, my advice to all authors, write any story the way it demands to be told. For me, I took on the challenge of mixing first and third in a few thrillers I have written. My thriller/police procedural Eleven (part of the Brandon Fisher FBI Series) utilizes this and is currently available for Kindle or in print.

An effective way of switching between characters for different scenes, mixing first and third or not, is another challenge -- and another post. For now, just keep writing, and heck, why not give writing first person a try? It might save your writing.

Carolyn Arnold is the author of both the Madison Knight and Brandon Fisher FBI series. To find out more information about her available books and upcoming releases, you can visit her at carolynarnold.net or peruse her Amazon Author Page.

Tip O'Day #414 - Save & Recycle

Guest blogger Linda Greene on the art of rewriting.

Returned to its source, the pulp from the rejected pages of my rewrites over the course of my writing career would constitute a woodland the rival of Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest. It wasn’t until I discovered that the master wordsmith himself, F. Scott Fitzgerald, considered the art of fiction to be the art of rewriting, that I stopped viewing it as a blot on my abilities and grew keen on the practice.

Actually, it is one of the tasks of writing that I enjoy the most, not only because of its value to the finished product, but also because I’ve discovered almost none of it goes to waste. Just as there was said to be “gold in them thar hills,” there is gold in those abandoned pages.

Developed through layers of evolution, sometimes my completed writing projects barely resemble the early drafts — but, oh, those early drafts have been priceless when adapted for other projects. My latest novel, Guardians and Other Angels, is an example of this fusion of independent pieces of writing, some of which I had thrown on the heap of the unfinished or uninspired that I considered of little or no further use to me; when pitched to the tuning fork of the new piece, they sang the praises of my story. My obsessive compulsive nature that makes me hoard every scrap I pen often pays off in the end.

My penchant toward collecting pages of personal writings is apparently inherited, for included in Guardians and Other Angels are my transcriptions of authentic private letters written by ancestors during the Great Depression and World War II. It is a preserved anthology remarkable in its recording of their thoughts and feelings, and of their day-to-day experiences, as well as in its powerful chronicling of the incomparable history of those times. Like my set-asides, those hundreds upon hundreds of pages written by my ancestors were thrown in an old chest and thought worthless; in fact, when once again shown the light of day, their share of my novel is golden.

Based on this one example alone, my advice is to rewrite until your work reflects the best of your capabilities, and value all of your written words. First, save them for your own future work; second, like me, one of your descendants might need your discards for the novel or biography he or she will eventually write about you.

Tip O'Day #413 - Three Bits of Advice

Guest blogger Lesley Ann Sharrock says you need to “be yourself, find your own voice, and write for yourself.”

What does it take to be published? Damned if I know, even though I have achieved that honor.

It seems to me that it’s a bit of a lottery.

When I finished my first novel, The Seventh Magpie, I tried going down the traditional route of finding an agent. No luck there, lots of “it’s not for us but another agent may feel differently.” They didn’t. We all know that the large publishers will only look at work that is submitted to them via an agent, so that door was firmly slammed in my face. I finally went directly to a smaller publishing house and they accepted it. Phew!

I have just finished my second novel, Truth Lies Buried, and am back on the old agent hunt because I feel that this one is far more commercial than the first as I have now shifted genres to crime thrillers. I may well be wrong, but only time will tell.

The advice I would give all writers is to be yourself, find your own voice, and write for yourself.

Not everyone will like your work, not even your nearest and dearest. Don’t be deterred. There will be lots of people out there who are just like you and who will tune in to your story, given half a chance. Have your final manuscript edited by a professional, experienced editor before submitting it. This is essential, no matter what route you decide to take, be it the traditional one of finding an agent for your work, submitting directly to small publishers or self-publishing. Make it as perfect as it can be.

You can view the book trailer for The Seventh Magpie here. Check out this author's website at http://lesleyannsharrock.com.

Tip O'Day #412 - Diversity in the Wild West

Guest blogger Diana Harrison has a shocker for you.

People are rather surprised by the fact that a British woman writes Westerns, which is probably why I write as D M Harrison. After that comes their amazement that the Wild West genre is still alive and well.

I consider Westerns to be a combination of adventure, mystery and thriller with a sprinkle of romance or sauciness. The West attracted pioneering men and women, encouraged by a government that wanted to open up the continent. The books in the Western genre are set in the few years between 1849-1900. This short era has given us more characters than many other periods in history.

My knowledge of the Wild West came initially from films and TV series, followed by books I’ve read, Internet searches, and visits to the American West. Although used to films stars like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, I wasn't ready for the small buildings in the (now preserved) ghost towns.

As I researched the era further, I found the West was made up of a melting pot of races, colors and creeds. I have attempted to reflect its diverse make-up in my books. I depict the Native Americans as courageous Nomads who unfortunately did not survive the different culture of the Frontiersmen and women. The Native Americans thought there was enough land for everyone to share but the new people fenced it off. Sharing was not in their nature.

My books develop with an idea - a robbery, a kidnapping, a railroad coming through - and then I put it in a time and place. I see the main character and how he/she is involved in the situation. Then I build on that. I write the story from beginning to end, and then I write it over and over again until I've checked all my facts and I'm satisfied with it. After that I send it to a publisher and hope they like it.

My stories are as diverse as the Wild West itself. Robbery in Savage Page, published by Robert Hale Ltd, has a Chinese-American as its main protagonist. In The Buffalo Soldier, published by Solstice Publishing, the main character is an African-American. The Comanche's Revenge, published by Robert Hale, describes what life is like for a young boy kidnapped by the Comanche. Kato's Army, published by Robert Hale Ltd, tries to depict the strong role women played in the West, fighting alongside their men. Blood Brothers, published on Kindle, describes the paths chosen by three brothers, and asks whether blood is truly a strong bond.

Look out for Diana’s next book with Solstice Publishing, Going to see the Elephant, describing the hardships and the wonders of a 3,000 mile overland trip to Oregon and California from a female POV. Her website is dmharrison.com and her Amazon.UK page is amazon.co.uk/D.-M.-Harrison

Sayings for Writers #142 - Critics

A Few Quotes which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

"A critic is a legless man who teaches running." -- Unknown

"Criticism is something you can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing." -- Aristotle

“I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that, before developing his talent, he would be wise to develop a thick hide.” -- Harper Lee

A few days ago, Montana photog Susan Haugan took this pic of a skull with a fresh layer of snow.

Dixon says: Mean-spirited reviews have been part of publishing since the first caveman scratched a doodle on a cave wall, and then the second caveman came along and corrected a misplaced hyena. All writers claim to welcome constructive criticism, and most of us lie on our tax returns as well. The first unfair and unflattering review always hurts the most, except for all the others.

Tip O'Day #411 - Where's the NF Horror?

Guest blogger Anthony Servante visits from the Servante of Darkness blog to discuss “The Flowering Roots of Horror: Criticism and Creativity."

Ann Radcliffe was the first to argue that horror was not the object of the gothic novel (she wrote six of them and is considered the Mother of the Gothic form), that terror was the dutiful aim of such literature. When the gothic stories became gruesome and sensational (circa early 1800s), Radcliffe dropped out of the writing scene and her work “On the Supernatural in Poetry” was her last published critique of the romanticization of her beloved story form. To find any other literary criticism of horror, we’d have to look back as far as the Ancient Greeks, who argued that “horror vacui” was “a fear of empty spaces.” Thus artwork of the grotesque crowds every single space of the canvas with images, from the works of Dadd to Bosch to Crumb (and even Mad Magazine movie parodies where each caption is filled to capacity with absurd and sometimes horrific pictures and characters that backdrop the main characters of the movie being ridiculed).

Today, however, there is no longer any criticism of horror as art or literature. What I have been trying to do for the past few years under the pseudonym Anthony Servante (especially under the Servante of Darkness moniker) is to revive this critical spotlight on works of horror that meet the criterion established by critics of old and guide readers to new critiques of art, whether in horror, science fiction, fantasy, noir, or gothic forms.

While most writers veer toward fiction and fame, very few choose nonfiction in a field rich such genres as the supernatural, mystery, suspense, thrillers and, of course, gothics. As an academician, I specialize in works of the grotesque in art and literature, concentrating on German and English Romanticism. My interest extends to the Victorian Age because it spawned many a great monster (Dracula, Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dorian Gray). As a reader, I peruse the monsters of today from new and old talents in film, art, and books. One day I decided to bring my academic writing to bear on my current readings. I decided to review today’s books the same way I critique the old literature. The only difference is that I don the Servante of Darkness garb for my reviews, but the result is still the same. I’ve had a hoot since I’ve been writing about the new wave in the grotesque.

I have followed the current trend in the Zombie Apocalypse and have interviewed authors on their views on the longevity of the genre. I have followed “cybernocturalism,” the self-publishing avalanche of horror eBooks. Some books are instant classics, while others are just plain bad, and the chasm between the two grows with no end in sight. The literature of Noir is being kept alive in the creative mind of Trent Zelazny. The Southern Gothic is alive and well with Ray Garton. Historic horror maestro Mark Rainey adds a dash of education to his works. Literature of the Absurd is modernized in the works of Gina Ranalli. The Weird Western, a new but important form of horror, has sustained new life with authors such as Ed Erdelac and Ian Rogers.

G.N. Braun has taken horror in a new direction with his work “Hammered” and my review of his book remains one of the top five read articles on my blog. The top three pieces in the Servante of Darkness are interviews with three rock legends: Roger Hodgson, the voice of Supertramp; Dave Lambert, guitarist and vocalist of Strawbs; and Tom Toomey, guitarist for The Zombies. That’s saying a lot about the staying power of Braun’s nonfictional biographic work.

Which brings us back to the lack of nonfiction writers in the field of horror and its neighboring genres. You don’t need to be a professor of literature to write a review or to point out a new trend. You simply need an opinion and a voice. There are plenty of avenues to get your opinion read: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and so on.

Radcliffe would be proud that her view of terror is still being written about and critiqued, and that the gothic form lives on today in literature and even music and cinema. Even the horror vacui continues in the work of Park Cooper and Barbara-Lien Cooper. It’s a brave new world for horror. And it’s a braver new world for those who write about its branches and growth. I am proud to be amongst them.

Check out this writer at Servante of Darkness blog found at http://servanteofdarkness.blogspot.com/

Tip O'Day #410 - NaFiYoDaNoMo

Guest blogger Laura Roberts presents an open letter to NaNoWriMo (which stands for National Novel Writing Month). You might not think it’s necessary to explain that abbreviation on a blog intended for book lovers, in which case you would be wrong.

Dear NaNoWriMo,

You are wonderful. We have been great friends, and I have enjoyed our many years together. What fond memories of participating in word-blasts and world-building, character development and plot thickening… You are a wonderful tool for kickstarting creativity. Every year I look forward to being reunited with you for a month of writing with no excuses.

I love you.

However, this month I need something a little bit different.

Instead of embarking on a new and exciting novelistic journey, I really need to sit my butt down at a keyboard and FINISH THE NOVEL I HAVE ALREADY STARTED. It’s a work in progress. It’s been this way for years. While the desire to start something new always tugs me in different directions, this year I really must finish what I started.

So no-no on a NaNo participant button for my site this year. In its place, I am putting up this button:

It is the NaFiYoDaNoMo button, which is short for National Finish Your Damn Novel Month. If you want to shorten it further, consider YoDaNoMo, which sounds vaguely Star Wars-esque and is therefore sure to placate the true geeks reading this. (Especially in this dark time of woe, what with Disney’s purchase of all things Jedi.)

While I wish all you NaNo novelists great success this November, I shall be over here, in my own little corner, finishing my damn novel at last.

See you in December!

Love, Laura

P.S. Feel free to use my button on your own site, if you also have a novel to finish this month!

Laura Roberts is the author of several humorous and erotic eBooks, including The Montreal Guide to Sex and The Vixen Files: Naughty Notes from a Montreal Sex Columnist. She is finishing her longstanding WIP, Naked Montreal, during the month of November and hopes to have it ready for sale in time for the XXXmas holidays. You can read more of her dirty words online at http://nakedmontreal.net

Saying for Writers #141 - R.L. Stine

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“People say, ‘What advice do you have for people who want to be writers?’ I say, they don’t really need advice, they know they want to be writers, and they’re gonna do it. Those people who know that they really want to do this and are cut out for it, they know it.” — R.L. Stine

Sunrise on a quiet morning - the Swan Mountain Range in northwest Montana. Another foot or so of snow is predicted for tonight.

Tip O'Day #409 - A Literary Slut

Guest blogger Patrick Whittaker has a dark secret.

I’m a slut. That is to say, I am happy to bestow my favours for free upon anyone who asks.

You see, I wrote this science-fiction novel called Sybernika which is set in the near future and explores – amongst other things – the impact that faster and cheaper computers will have on society. It is an edgy work, in that it has much that certain people might find offensive – sex, violence, swearing and other fun stuff. Little wonder then that publishers who were keen to publish the book (three of them) also demanded I make changes to ‘tone things down’ as it were. This I felt I could not do without damaging the integrity of my work. (Precious, I know, but it’s not my fault that I care.)

I was beginning to despair of finding a publisher for my baby when I stumbled upon Philistine Press, a truly remarkable outfit. What makes them different from most publishers is that they give it away.

Yep. You heard. They give it away. Now why the heck would they want to do that?

To quote from their website: ‘We’re here to publish material that wouldn’t ordinarily be published by mainstream presses, or accepted by the literary establishment.’

Frank Burton, Philistine’s founder and head honcho, thinks giving it away is a great idea. His reasoning being that very, very few books make a worthwhile amount of money and it’s better to give away a thousand books than to sell a half dozen for a couple of quid each.

You can see his point, can’t you? With the profit motive out of the way, there’s no need to pander to the market place. So you don’t have to follow trends and (more importantly) you don’t have to impose censorship on your authors.

I realised at once that Philistine was the perfect home for Sybernika.

Thankfully, Philistine agreed and now Sybernika is out there - untamed, uncensored and willing to go with anyone who asks.

The book was (kinda) launched last March at the Not the Oxford Literary Festival fringe event held in the fabulous Albion Beatnik book shop in Oxford. After Frank gave a speech detailing Philistine’s activities and rationale, I gave a short reading from Sybernika. Also present was Banana the Poet whose Endaxi Press publishes poetry. She was quite adamant that Endaxi would never contemplate selling its books for nothing. Part of her reasoning was that if you give it away, nobody appreciates it.

The lady has a point.

I suspect Sybernika has ‘outsold’ any of Endaxi’s books by a factor of 100. But how many of the people who’ve downloaded Sybernika will actually read it? Very few. Each Endaxi book, however, will be read at least once and probably several times by several people.

So why go down the free route? In the case of Sybernika, I had two prime motives. The first I’ve already mentioned: I did not want my baby butchered to suit somebody else’s middle class sensibilities.

My second motive was, of course, exposure. With everybody and their brother inflicting their work on the Internet, it’s very hard to get noticed. Quite frankly, I’m not sure of the best way to go about it and I seriously doubt anyone else does. And there’s no point studying the journey of the best sellers – 50 Shades of Gray etc…- because they make it more by luck than judgement. What works for one person doesn’t for thousands of others and may never work again for the person for whom it did work in the first place.

So what’s a boy to do?

I’ve gone for a scatter-gun approach. With every new book I put out there, I try something different. So I have books that are self-published, books that are published through publishing houses such as Philistine and Musa, free books, cheap books, not so cheap books, eBooks, paperbacks, books on Smashwords and books on Kindle Direct. On top of that, I have a (woefully neglected) blog and I whore myself on Facebook where I have over 1,000 ‘friends.'

Now all I can do is hope for that elusive breakthrough where some sort of dark alchemy kicks in and word-of-mouth creates a buzz for me and my work. In the meantime, I’m more than happy to give it away for free. At least some of the time.

A Halloween Blog Post

Guest blogger Mary Ricksen presents a tale from her Gothic childhood.

Many years ago my sister and I used to play this game. We would lie in bed late at night and play when we couldn’t sleep. The old Victorian house my great grandmother lived in would creak and groan. We never knew what was house or what could possibly be ghost. The odd shaped windows and doors that opened into walls added the mystique. You had to keep both feet well away from the edge of the bed. Better safe than sorry.

The idea of the game was to guess the tune. We would tap out the music on the bed while hearing it in your head. I don’t know how we did it, but we always guessed right.

The room we stayed in was all dark corners and deep closets with shadows so dark, you had to feel your way out of the room. I hated it, but every time we visited we ended up in the same room.

Dark, heavy curtains lined the windows. Not a speck of light got in when they closed. Wood pineapples were on each of four posts of the old cherry furniture. We stayed on the third floor. I don’t know why because there were four bedrooms on the second floor and we were always the only ones visiting. The only ones up there. All alone. My cousin used to tease us, saying great Uncle Snidely had died up there and watched his heirs all the time. She told us about him and showed us his picture. We were primed.

No night lights allowed; we were big girls.

One very stormy night at Great Gram’s place we lay there tapping out songs. Thunder boomed and lightning knocked out all the street lights. After one particularly loud boom I realized I had to take a pee. My sister ran to the window to look and I jumped outta bed and ran. The tile floor chilled my feet as I walked on little squares. I quickly did what I had to and ran back down the dark hallway to our room.

My sister was talking and she sounded flustered. “I still can’t understand what you’re trying to have me guess.”

I jumped on my bed closest to the door. “What are you talking about?”

“Very funny, I’ve been trying to guess the song, but you keep tapping out nonsense. I told you I give up and still you kept tapping. What was the song you were trying to have me guess?”

“I just got back from the bathroom. I haven’t been tapping anything.” I chuckled. “Have you been playing our game with a ghost or something?”

Her voice quivered. “Did you say you just came back from the bathroom?”

“Yes.” Now I was getting scared.

“Well, I have been trying to guess the song and you, well I thought it was you, were tapping away like crazy. I had no idea what you wanted me to guess.” She jumped on my bed as a loud peel of thunder ripped the skies.

“Someone was here. Something, oh man, something was playing our game with me.” She shivered against my side.

Just then we heard it, in the silence between lightning strikes. Tapping. Tap, tap, tap…

“AAAAAHHHHHH!!” We screamed in unison. Both of us jumped up and ran outta that room so fast our feet flew, screaming the whole way. “AAAHHHHH!”

My great grandmother appeared at the end of the hall. “Girls, what’s wrong?”

“Ghosts,” we wailed. She calmed us down and urged us into her huge bed. Between breaths we told Gram what happened.

“Oh, that wasn’t Uncle Snidely. We have no one in the family by that name.” She laughed and we laughed.

We got under the covers with her and snuggled. Warm and secure we felt foolish, until she closed her eyes and sighed.

“The only person it could be is Uncle Frankie. He loved music.”

Vermont-born Mary Ricksen now lives in Florida and writes time-travel romance novels. Her next novel will be released in November, and her first novel, Tripping Through Time, is available at both Amazon and B&N. Her website is www.maryricksen.com/ where you’ll find a link to her blog.

On a dark and scary Halloween night, Mary suggests you hang out with other writers, who are generally warm, supportive and willing to share their knowledge.

Saying for Writers #140 - Richard Peck

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

"We don't write what we know. We write what we wonder about." -- Richard Peck

A Montana sunset - photo by Sue Haugan.

Tip O'Day #407 - Settings

Guest blogger Jack Sakalauskas says he’s “not too old for dreams to come true.”

I was born and brought up on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. My best earliest memories were going to the library each Saturday morning to get my books for the week. Pirates, boy detectives - it didn't matter, as long as I could visit someone else's world.

At this time, I did fantasize about being a writer. I wanted to write cowboy stories. For me, the perfect job would be to live in Arizona and write westerns. Well, at least I've gotten to visit Arizona. My career was the military and James Michener one of my favourite authors.

My reading took a sudden halt in 1972 when my daughter was born with C.P. Everything went on the back burner. Medical bills for special hospitals in the U.S. had me working part-time jobs, four at one point, besides my military career. My daughter will be forty next month. Bed-ridden, she requires constant care.

I didn't start reading again until my final retirement in 2004. My first book was Salt: A World History. Then, it was one book after another. For me, as well as most writers, the Internet certainly changed things. It became easy for anyone to write something and put it out there. So I jumped in. I thought it would keep me out of mischief and maybe keep Alzheimers at bay.

I wrote some short stories and it was fun. Some are on Echelon Press. By now, I wanted a book in print. I had no delusions I would ever get a publisher. Along came CreateSpace. Perfect for me. But what to write about? Write what you know about, everyone says. Well, I had spent time in Morocco. I knew about their trains, riding camels, deserts and the Kazbah. That would do.

My first book, Jewel of Marrakesh, is a YA novel, about a spoiled princess, two English boys, along with a flying carpet, slave traders and magic. I must admit, there is nothing like having a book with your name on the cover sitting on your bookshelf.

Next, I tried my hand at a book for adults. I settled on my home town of Sydney Mines. Lots of coal miners and some bootleggers, but basically boring, as I suspect most towns are. So I changed the town name to Li'l Warsaw and titled my book, Moonshine or Dirty Faces.

For the most part the places are real and also most of the people. Of course, everything is exaggerated. How else can you make a story?

You can learn more about this author’s books at http://tinyurl.com/8heos4e .

Tip O'Day #406 - A Changed World

Guest blogger K. Anne Raines on “The Confessions of a Book Junkie.”

I read a lot – like over 120 books per year a lot.

Once upon a time, book lovers – including me – flocked to bookstores everywhere. Some preferred large chains such as Barnes and Noble, others sought out used stores, while those like me enjoyed unusual little shops in quaint little towns. I could spend hours getting lost in all of the books. The hidden treasure inside each binding was a faraway world not yet discovered to me. And I was there to find it.

One day a new gadget changed my life. My Kindle paved a whole new road for finding new books. The once infinite worlds of a bookstore were now finite. Countless authors that would have never been able to share their stories before found their way to publishing through the e-book world. And, I just have to say, it is awesome! Yes, because it’s so easy now to publish, there is a chance you’ll find a book that’s less than stellar; however, I’ve read books published traditionally where they left me scratching my head wondering how they ever made it to a bookshelf.

With the dawning of the Kindle age, finding what to read next has changed drastically. I hate to say it, but I absolutely 100 percent judge a book by its cover, especially if it’s self-published. Why? Well, to me it’s easy. You can tell how serious authors are about the product they’re producing by their cover. Authors, both self and traditionally published, hope to gain a profit from their heart-pouring efforts, and it’s a business venture. The old adage that “you have to spend money to make money” is true, and they should invest wisely in the cover.

Social networking sites to find great books such as Goodreads are all the rage. There’s also Facebook book groups. My favorite books of all time have come from recommendations on these sites. The word-of-mouth on social sites is invaluable to both a reader and an established or emerging author. On social networking sites you’re not limited to what a bookstore offers. The book possibilities are endless.

I’m a book junkie, a true bibliophile, and always will be. Whether the stories are in a quaint shop or waiting to be purchased on Amazon, it doesn’t matter, I will find them.

Saying for Writers #139 - Bradbury

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.” -- Ray Bradbury

A photo of Bird Woman Falls in nearby Glacier National Park.

Saying for Writers #138 - Hemingway

A Quote which Might (or Might Not) Inspire You to Write:

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” — Ernest Hemingway

Dixon says: It's comforting to read biographies of famous authors we admire, and to discover they also wrote crappy first drafts, struggled with clunky passages during rewrites, and despaired of writing something good enough to publish. We all slog along a muddy path where the greatest joy comes not from writing, but from having written.

The photo above was taken this morning by my friend Sue Haugen, an avid photo bug and fellow soccer nut who lives in my hometown of Kalispell, Montana. Winter has come to our quiet little valley entirely too soon.